


Goose and All the Trimmings

by Gray Shadows (tris_chandler)



Category: Hot Fuzz (2007)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Dinner, Christmas Fluff, Didn't Know They Were Dating, Gift Giving, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:55:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28122705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tris_chandler/pseuds/Gray%20Shadows
Summary: The lights were on.He never left the lights on.Nicholas drew his truncheon as he approached the house. The door was closed; though the curtains were drawn, he could see some movement -- in the kitchen, he thought. He tested the door: unlocked. He never left it unlocked. Steeling himself, he raised his truncheon and pushed up the door. "Nicholas Angel, Sandford Police!"The large figure in his kitchen startled just as they were turning, and the aluminium roasting pan in their hands fell to the floor. "For fuck's sake, Nicholas, you made me drop the potatoes!"
Relationships: Nicholas Angel/Danny Butterman
Comments: 14
Kudos: 119
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Goose and All the Trimmings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kahvi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kahvi/gifts).



Nicholas pulled up at the side of the road, parking safely before picking up his radio. "Anything going on, Doris? Anything at all?" 

He waited, the snow falling softly to the street around the car. A moment later, Doris's voice crackled over the line. "Nothing at all, Sergeant. You go on home, Sergeant Turner and PC Walker can handle anything that comes up. Sandford's quiet at Christmas, you know that."

"Aye, well, first time for everything. Thanks, Doris. Give us a ring if anything happens, but otherwise I'll see you in the morning. Happy Christmas."

"And a happy Christmas to you. Safe home."

Taking a moment to breathe out and relax, Nicholas rolled his shoulders, replaced the radio handset on the dash, and put the car in gear. Pulling away carefully, mindful of the slick snow just covering the roads, he drove the few blocks over to his little home. 

The lights were on.

He never left the lights on.

Nicholas drew his truncheon as he approached the house. The door was closed; though the curtains were drawn, he could see some movement -- in the kitchen, he thought. He tested the door: unlocked. He never left it unlocked. Steeling himself, he raised his truncheon and pushed open the door. "Nicholas Angel, Sandford Police!"

The large figure in his kitchen startled just as they were turning, and the aluminium roasting pan in their hands fell to the floor. "For fuck's sake, Nicholas, you made me drop the potatoes!"

"What- Danny?" Nicholas asked, tossing his truncheon onto his settee as he walked through the sitting room into the kitchen. He and Danny both knelt down, gathering the roast potatoes and putting them back in the pan. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I _was_ making you a Christmas dinner," Danny explained, "but now I'm picking up food off the floor. Lucky I made a second tray, or we wouldn't have any of them."

"You... spent your day off making me dinner?" Nicholas sat back on his haunches as the last potato -- exquisitely roasted, crispy on the outside with enough give that he knew it would be perfectly fluffy on the inside -- was tossed back in the pan. "Why would you do that?"

Danny shrugged, standing up and tipping the pan into the compost before tossing it, empty, onto the counter. "'Cause otherwise you'd probably sit back alone with some takeaway curry and watch, I dunno, some documentary."

Chuckling, Nicholas took a moment to take in the food spread across his counter. It was a veritable feast: carrots and peas, and a paper sack in the bin that indicated they'd come from the farmer down the road; cranberry sauce, and a pot in the sink that had Nicholas thinking it had been made from scratch, and not come from a tin; the second pan of potatoes was coming out of the oven as he looked over, and the open door offered a glimpse of the... not turkey, it was too small for that, so goose; and, aside from a few dishes that seemed to be recently used, the kitchen was otherwise spotless. "Actually, I was thinking I'd watch Die Hard tonight," he admitted, offering a shy grin to Danny. "Someone keeps telling me it's a Christmas movie, after all."

"What, without me?" Danny asked, affronted. He tipped the oven closed with one foot as he put the second tray of potatoes down - carefully - on a waiting trivet.

"Well, actually, I figured I'd call you when I was off work and see if you'd pick up the curry on your way," Nicholas admitted. "You've preempted that a bit. This looks _amazing_ , Danny. You didn't need to go to all this."

Shrugging, Danny tented the various dishes in tin foil. "These'll go back in the oven to keep warm once the goose is out," he explained. "It'll need a bit of time to rest before I carve it, anyway. And... I know. I wanted to, that's all."

"How did I not know you could cook like this?" Nicholas shook his head, bewildered. "I mean, you've never... You're always just eating sandwiches and the like."

Danny's expression dropped, and he looked away. "It's... well, after Mum died, it was just me and Dad. Someone had to figure it out, and it certainly wasn't going to be him."

Swearing mentally, Nicholas stepped over and pulled Danny into a hug. "Sorry, mate, I didn't mean to... I should have figured."

Hugging back, Danny buried his face in the crook of Nicholas's neck for a moment, breathing in, before pulling away. "It's all right. Means I can do it for you, now."

"Danny..."

"No. No tears, it's Christmas." Danny shooed Nicholas away. "Go sit down. There's a lager waiting for you on the table. The bird's just about to come out, anyway, dinner won't be long."

"In a minute," Nicholas assured him. "I need to go grab something from the car. I forgot, you see, when I thought someone had _broken into my house_." He grinned at Danny, who laughed. "I mean, someone did, after all."

The snow had piled up further during the time he'd been inside, and there were a few moments where he thought his feet might go out from under him, but Nicholas managed to make it to the car and back without incident. "Presents," he explained, holding up the bag and moving to his small tree. Reaching around behind it, he plugged it in, and its soft radiance lit the sitting room. 

Looking through the passthrough from the kitchen, Danny grinned. "Well, that looks properly like Christmas, now," he said. "Hey, my jacket's there, there's a gift for you in the front pocket."

Nicholas blinked, then reached over and pulled the wrapped gift from the coat. "This... little box?" he asked. It looked like nothing so much as a ring box, though it was hard to tell through the wrapping. There was a small tag, his name scrawled across it.

"Uh- yeah," Danny confirmed. "It's not what it looks like. Anyway, you can't open it until tomorrow, right?" He set the roast goose on the counter, then began moving the other dishes back into the oven. "Sit down and drink your lager."

"In a minute!" Nicholas insisted, arraying the gifts -- a small collection, in truth, with a few sent by his parents, one by an old friend from London, and a couple of small gifts by others in the Sandford service -- around the foot of the tree. "There. Presents under the tree, Christmas dinner with- a good friend. A movie to look forward to. What more could one ask for?"

"Sit. _Down._ " Danny rolled his eyes. "You are the absolute worst, you know that? You never, ever stop!"

Nicholas grinned cheekily as he stepped back into the kitchen and sat down at his small table, picking up the waiting lager. "Aww. It's why you love me, isn't it?"

"Keep it up and you'll be sleeping alone tonight," Danny taunted him. 

"Funny, I didn't think there were other options," Nicholas retorted. "So. How long for dinner?"

* * *

They ate in the sitting room, although the food didn't last long, and Nicholas was left bemoaning the loss of the first tray of potatoes. _Die Hard_ was exactly what it promised to be, complete with argument about whether 'takes place at Christmas' was all that was required to be considered a Christmas movie. Finally, Danny got up. "I, uh, guess I should be getting home," he said. 

"Nah, sit," Nicholas insisted, shifting a bit on the couch. "There's a sequel, isn't there? Is that one at Christmas, too? Besides, looks like the snow's been coming down pretty hard. Probably safer for you just to stay the night, at this point."

"Oh, uh. I guess, yeah." Danny sat back down; his eyes flicked over to the presents under the tree. "I mean, safety first, and all that, right? Wouldn't be good for a cop to get in an accident -- sorry, a _collision_ \-- on Christmas."

Nicholas slung his arm over the back of the couch and leaned in, just a little. "It's also entirely possible that I'd just rather that you kept yourself in one piece," he pointed out. "You're my best friend, you get that, right? More than just my partner?"

There was a moment of hesitation as Danny's eyes flicked back to the presents. "Y'know, growing up, we always used to be allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve," he said. "You could-" He reached over and picked up the small gift from the floor. 

"I suppose I could." Nicholas narrowed his eyes at Danny. "Is everything all right?"

"Just- Just open it."

The box inside the wrapping paper was actually a little bigger than a ring box, and was old and worn; when Nicholas lifted the lid, he gasped. "This is-" he started, looking over at Danny. "Was this your-?"

"My granddad's," Danny explained. "The Queen's Police Medal."

"Danny, I can't accept this." Nicholas closed the box and held it out to Danny, who shook his head.

"I want you to have it," he insisted. "You've done so much for this town, for _me_... It feels right. Granddad left it to me, not Dad, and now I want you to have it."

Nicholas waited a moment longer, then pulled the box back, opening it again to look at the medal inside. "I don't know what to say, Danny," he admitted. He looked up, meeting Danny's eyes, and for a long moment they just looked at each other. "I-" He leaned in.

Danny leaned in.

Their lips touched.

They pulled back, breath heavy.

"Well," Nicholas said, finally. "That explains more than it doesn't. You, too, then, huh?"

Danny nodded. "For a while now. A, uh, long while."

"Huh. Me, too. C'mon." Nicholas stood up and held a hand out to Danny, pulling him up from the couch. "The dishes will keep 'til morning. Let's head to bed."


End file.
